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DEL.ICIO.USOn the Speaker’s new GSU connection
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) now has another reason to smile on Georgia State University lobbyists when they come knocking on his door.
Richardson is a GSU grad. And now he’s got a GSU employee in the family.
Our colleague James Salzer found out the speaker’s son, Bryn, 23, began working this week for the school. Bryn, a UGA graduate, was hired as a $32,000-a-year fulltime temporary employee — meaning he won’t get benefits — to work on the school’s student recruitment portal.
DeAnna Hines, assistant vice president for media relations at Georgia State University, noted that the job is temporary. “His background is in telecommunications. I’m happy to give someone a chance to get experience in an area they enjoy working in,” she said.
Longtime Capitol lobbyist Tommy Lewis is GSU’s vice president of external affairs, which is over the department Bryn Richardson was hired to work in. Lewis said he’d met the speaker’s son at the Capitol, where Bryn served as an intern.
Lewis, former chief of staff to Gov. Joe Frank Harris, also knows Richardson’s wife’s family.
Lewis said he talked with Bryn Richardson about jobs at the school, but he added that being the speaker’s son didn’t have anything to do with him getting hired.
“The speaker’s one of our grads, he’s a good guy,” Lewis told Salzer. “When I talked to him, the only thing he said was that he appreciated me talking to [Bryn].
“He did not say, ‘hire him.’ “
Richardson’s spokeswoman, Clelia Davis, said much the same thing. “[The speaker] had nothing to do with it.”
But when asked if Bryn Richardson’s hiring will help Georgia State’s lobbying efforts at the Capitol, Lewis replied, “It depends if you make this a headline.”
Comments
By RJ
November 2, 2007 9:46 PM | Link to this
Tommy Lewis got his job through politics. He is in no way qualified to hold the position he holds. A little research will reveal that job descriptions were customized for him to qualify for the various positions he has held at the school. Tommy lewis is a shinning example of who benefits from the “old boy network” and so its no surprise that he would try to suck up to the Speaker by hiring his son. I hear that at times he acts like he’s the President of GSU.